Chapter IV

Proserpina had grown very hungry. She had just begun to eat some fruit when King Pluto told her she could go back to her mother.

As she walked along, everything turned green. Beautiful flowers grew in her path. The cows and the sheep began to eat the grass and the birds to sing in the trees.

Mother Ceres was sitting on the door-step when she heard Proserpina say, “Here I am, Mother dear.”

How happy Mother Ceres was, to hold her little girl in her arms once more. Proserpina told her all about King Pluto’s castle.

“I was so unhappy, Mother dear,” she said, “that I did not eat anything until to-day. Then King Pluto gave me some fruit that had grown in one of your gardens.”

“Oh, my little Proserpina!” said Mother Ceres. “Why did you eat it?”

“I did not eat all of it,” said the little girl. “I swallowed only six seeds.”

“My child,” said Mother Ceres sadly, “you ate those six seeds in King Pluto’s castle. So you will have to spend six months of every year under the ground with him. While you are gone nothing shall grow. But when you come back to me in the spring, we will make the world beautiful.”

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (_Adapted_).

HAWTHORNE AND HIS CHILDREN.

Nathaniel Hawthorne had three children. They had great fun together.

In the spring he made them boats to sail on the lake, and kites to fly in the air.

In the summer he went fishing with them and took them into the woods to gather flowers.

In the autumn they went nutting.

One day the children were standing at the foot of a tall walnut tree. Soon they heard a shout.

When they looked up the children saw their father high up in the top of the tree. Then down came the nuts! The children put them into bags and carried them home.

When the snow came, their father took them coasting. Sometimes as they went down the hill they fell into the snow.

Then how they shouted and laughed!

Hawthorne liked to take long walks with his son. The little boy thought that his father was the best playmate in the world.

Once when they were out walking, they passed through some tall grass and weeds. They played these were giants and dragons which had to be cut down.

Hawthorne struck so hard that he broke his cane. Then he sat down and watched the little boy fighting with the giants and dragons.

Hawthorne loved children so much that he wrote books for them.

His three children loved his stories. They read his Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales so often that they knew them almost by heart.

JUNE.

The lilies ring their tiny bells
From garden-beds in June,
And high and clear their music swells,
A lovely fairy tune.

SELECTED.
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THUMBLING.

There was once a woman who had no little child. So one day she went to see a Wise Fairy.

“I wish for a tiny, little child,” she said. “Can you tell me where I can get one?”

“Here is a grain of corn,” said the Wise Fairy. “Plant it in a flower-pot. Then you will see what is to be seen.”

“Thank you,” said the woman.

Then she went home and planted the corn in a flower-pot.

The next day a large flower came up. It looked like a tulip bud.

The woman kissed the red and yellow leaves. As she kissed it the flower opened with a loud snap.

In the middle of the tulip there was a little tiny girl. She was only an inch high. So they named her Thumbling.

II

“Thumbling must have a cradle,” said the woman. So she made her one out of a walnut shell.

Thumbling slept on the blue velvet leaves of a violet. Her cover was a pink rose leaf.

One night a great Ugly Toad hopped in at the window.

“What a pretty little girl!” she said. The Ugly Toad took the walnut shell and hopped down into the garden. A brook ran through the garden.

“I will put her out in the brook on a water-lily leaf,” said the Ugly Toad. “Then she cannot get away.”

On the largest leaf the Toad laid the walnut shell. Thumbling was in it fast asleep.

In the morning Thumbling awoke and began to cry. The Fishes looked up and saw poor little Thumbling.

“Why are you crying, little girl?” they said.

“I do not want to live with the Ugly Toad,” said Thumbling.

“Live with the Toads?” said the Fishes. “No, that must never be.”

They cut the stem of the lily leaf with their sharp teeth.

The lily leaf floated down the brook and carried Thumbling away from the Ugly Toads.

III

By and by a large May-bug came flying along.

He caught Thumbling with his long claws. Then he flew with her into a tree. How frightened little Thumbling was!

Soon many other May-bugs came into the tree, to look at poor frightened little Thumbling.

“Why!” said one. “She has no claws.”

“She has only two legs,” said another. “She should have six.”

“How ugly she is!” said all the others.

When the May-bug heard this he flew down with her from the tree. He set her upon a large daisy and left her there.

All summer Thumbling lived alone in the great woods.

She wove a bed out of the leaves of grass. She hung the bed under a large leaf to keep out the rain.

Thumbling ate the honey from the flowers. She drank the dew that stood every morning upon the leaves.

Then winter came, and it began to snow. Poor little Thumbling! She was very cold.

IV

A Field Mouse lived in a corn-field close to the woods.

“I will ask the Field Mouse for something to eat,” she said.

Poor Thumbling stood at the door like a little beggar girl.

“You dear child!” said the Field Mouse. “Come into my warm house. You may eat dinner with me.”

“Would you like to stay with me all winter?” said the Field Mouse.

“You may keep my house clean, and you may tell me pretty stories.”

The winter was long and cold. But Thumbling was happy with the kind Field Mouse.